Traditional and Spirit-filled?

One of the concerns we have is that many people associate being a "Spirit-filled" Christian with a certain type of praise music or church service. We think this confuses the issue. In fact we think that this can often be a real problem. When we associate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit with a particular "style" of worship or music we often "compartmentalize" the work of the Spirit to a church service. We think this is an error no matter what your worship service looks or sounds like.

On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was poured out on a band of Jewish believers who attended Temple Worship in Jerusalem. These early disciples observed the daily Jewish hours of prayer and lived out their faith in a "liturgical" setting, not a setting such as the ones that modern Evangelicals associate with "Spirit-filled worship". In fact a traditional church like ours has much more in common with temple worship than does a modern Evangelical Church. Rather, the New Testament instances of pentecostal expression were in less formalized prayer services. There was a distinction between worship offered to God on the Sabbath and other instances of prayer and devotion. So rather than focusing all of our expectation of the activity of the Holy Spirit within a church service we teach that this should be the daily experience of the believer who is walking in obedience to Christ and preaching the gospel. We encourage the gifts of the Holy Spirit to be cultivated in the lives of our parishioners and believe that the power of the Holy Spirit should be demonstrated in our daily lives. That being said we do understand that some people experience the joy of the Holy Spirit in different contexts - some in a liturgical setting and others in less formal "praise services". We offer both, providing the structure and security of a traditional service as well as the modern praise music that many younger people enjoy at other times.

What happens when a church takes this approach to the Spirit-filled life? Authenticity happens! When we live a Spirit-filled life, instead of merely attending a "charismatic styled worship service" our lives become a more authentic expression of the gospel and the power of God and people are attracted to the presence of Christ in our lives. Our lives become consistent with the message we preach and that is far more powerful than merely raising our hands to music on a Sunday.